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Motivational Meditation Monday: Keep Calm & Fear Less

“Fate loves the fearless.” – James Russell Lowell

Fear Less Meditation

Talking to people, going to school, applying for a new job, paying bills, dating, and even living for an addict or alcoholic can be scary. Most of us spent our whole lives scared living in fear. We were either scared of not getting what we want or losing what we had. We lived impulsively and usually out of fear as a result. Normal people didn’t see this fear because we covered it up not only with alcohol or drugs, but with false ego and pride.

Unhealthy Fear

As we started to get clean and sober we saw that we could no longer cover up our fear, it seemed to pour out of us. Sometimes our fear showed up as anger, sometimes it showed up as grandiosity. We never seemed to fit in with others; we were either less than or better than the next person. We were uncomfortable in our own skin and we were too afraid to show it. After a while we had two decisions to make, we either admitted who and what we were and did the work to recover, or we allowed that fear to control us and we picked up. Once an addiction treatment solution was offered on how to stay clean and sober, the choice was ours.

Healthy Fear

Some fear is healthy; it’s that gut feeling you may get that tells you something is not right. Its only when we propel our lives based on fear that it becomes unhealthy. Many people think they are going to stay clean and sober based on the fear of the past. The sad truth is that if you are a real alcoholic/addict, that fear will eventually fade and the drink/drug will look appealing once again. Healthy fear of past experiences works best at staying clean and sober when we work a program of recovery.

As we stay clean and sober working a program of recovery we see how experience (both good and bad) benefit others on their journey in recovery. We see that what we once feared isn’t so scary today. After working steps, we aren’t scared of people, places, or things as much as we once were. As we work on our spiritual condition, our fear becomes less controlling and our Higher Power (or program of recovery) replaces that fear with trust, faith, and belief in something greater than our designs or plans. We are never alone in these feelings of fear; we just learn healthier ways to cope with fear so that it does not control who we are and what we do. We also learned that others had and have these feelings too, we are never alone when we talk to other addicts and alcoholics in recovery.